Mechanical stops that arrest motion or withstand impacts from moving structural members are many and varied in design. Typically, they may be fabricated to have substantial mass to bear up under repeated impacts, and when some are subjected to excessive loads, they bend or are otherwise distorted as they fail. This type of failure may damage the supporting structure as well as associated machinery and may jam a desired mechanical operation.
One attempt to remedy this undesirable effect was the development of a shear stop which was not tapered along its length so that bending loads were generated in addition to shear loads. This combined loading caused the shear stop to fail at lower loads as compared to loads that were primarily shear loads. In addition, the untapered design was not provided with structure to remove damaged shear stops and to install and tighten new shear stops without a relatively complicated procedure for removal of the bracket which supported the stops. Furthermore, the inner shear stud of the untapered shear stop was hexagonal in cross section. Consequently, it did not consistently present the same amount of buffering coating between the load and the stud. In other words, the thickness of the coating depended upon the rotational location of the flats and points of the hexagonal stud as the stud was tightened. As a result, the failure loads varied greatly.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for tapered rounded shear stops that convert loads to primarily shear forces and shear under excessive loads to protect an attached mounting bracket from damage.